Online car shopping test backfires

CBS.MarketWatch.com

Don't expect to have an easy time buying a car on the Web. Consumer Reports found only 35 percent of potential car buyers received a price-quote within two days from dealers at five popular online auto-shopping sites. When a quote was produced, it was not always for the exact car specified. The magazine's associate director of new media Thomas Falconer told CBS.MarketWatch.com in an interview. Almost one out of five shoppers (22 percent) were told they would have to visit the dealership to get a firm price.The magazine asked almost 1,000 online shoppers to request quotes from AutoBytel
ABTL, -1.43%
AutoVantage, AutoWeb, Cars.com, and CarPoint
MSFT, -1.70%
"Going online is a terrific way to do auto-related research, but you can't kick the tires through your computer monitor," added Lou Richman, the magazine's finance editor. "When online shopping matures in the next few years, consumers might well prefer the Internet to showrooms, but for now the car buyer still has to visit the dealers." AutoBytel and CarPoint provided the timeliest quotes and had the most local dealers.

Microsoft real estate site offers mortgage guarantee

Microsoft Corp.
MSFT, -1.70%
said Thursday it will partner with GMAC-Residential Funding, Wells Fargo
WFC, -1.69%
and others to form a new company which will allow mortgage shoppers to lock in interest rate quotes. The new joint venture, HomeAdvisor Technologies Inc., says it will reduce the mortgage approval process from weeks to days in part because some of its partners, which also include Freddie Mac, will indicate their interest in buying the loan packages. Freddie Mac
FRE, -3.45%
is one of the nation's largest investors in residential mortgages. GMAC-RFC, Norwest Mortgage and Bank of America
BAC, -2.27%
represent more than $400 billion dollars in mortgage originations each year. Microsoft will hold a majority stake in HomeAdvisor Technologies Inc.

Web use climbs in February

The Top 25 Web Properties saw "noteworthy increases" in unique visitors to their sites in February compared to January, according to a new report from Nielsen/NetRatings
NTRT
The two properties experiencing the largest gains were: American Greetings, 62.9 percent and Time Warner, 12.7 percent. The research firm's February report also showed that Web users at work are more likely to be men (54 percent), as compared to the 50-50 proportion of men to women surfers at home. Women, however, still spend less time online than men, both at work where females surfed an average of 18 hours as compared to the 22 hours spent by males and at home where females logged eight hours versus the 10 hours surfed by males. Nielsen/NetRatings said the five most popular Web properties accessed by users at home were AOL
AOL
Yahoo
YHOO
MSN
MSFT, -1.70%
Excite At Home
ATHM, -2.16%
and Lycos
LCOS

Washington Post feather$ Net nest

The Washington Post's
WPO
Internet-related efforts poured lots of money into fancy offices even while losing tens of millions of dollars on operations, according to WorldNetDaily.com. The Washington Post's
WPO
investment in its online units, which also include NewsweekInteractive, totaled $85 million last year while revenues were $17 million, the report said. A spokesman at the Post, quoted by the New York Post, said "It's not an unusual experience in the industry. But we're investing in it highly. We will invest more in 2000 than in 1999."

National online voter registration launched

BeAVoter.org launched Thursday offering a bilingual Web site to facilitate voter registration. It was organized by America Online
AOL
MCI WorldCom
WCOM
the Close Up Foundation, and the American Association of Retired Persons. To register, a user visits the site, selects their state and fills in an online form. Within five to 10 days, a paper copy of the completed registration form arrives in the individual's mail for their signature. The service is accessible in English or Spanish.

Amazon.com may be eyeing acquisitions

Amazon.com [: AMZN] appears headed further down the road to mergers and buyouts using its stock as currency. The company is asking shareholders to OK a three-fold increase in common shares from 1.5 billion to 5 billion, and preferred shares from 150 million to 500 million. The announcement was included in a preliminary proxy statement to shareholders ahead of the annual meeting set for May 10. The notice, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday, reported company founder Jeff Bezos owns one third of the company's shares and was paid a salary last year of $81,840.

HealthCentral.com to acquire Vitamins.com

HealthCentral.com
HCEN
said it will acquire Vitamins.com for $103 million dollars worth of stock. Robert Haft, Vitamins.com president, will be president of the new subsidiary of HealthCentral.com. The founder of Crown Books, Haft launched Vitamins.com in 1997 as both an Internet and bricks and mortar operation. Vitamins.com has ten stores in the Washington, DC area. "Combining our product portfolios will provide consumers with an enhanced and personalized shopping experience and adds an additional 'bricks-and-mortar' legitimacy to our e-pharmacy business," said HealthCentral.com President Albert Greene.

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